In the millennium the whole idea of shopping and in particular gift
shopping has been changed by the idea of personal shoppers or this new
wave of experience led shopping. Once it was simply enough to head to the
local high street stores on Xmas Eve, throw £50 on the counter and
hey presto the wife / husband was mucho impressed. Maybe much of this change
in culture is down to the lifestyles we live today and especially being
in Britain where we work longer hours than the rest of Europe there's an
idea that the spare time we have must be spent productively and it's these
one-off experiences rather than passionate hobbies that people are finding
themselves seeking out and relishing.

I first came across the concept of this a few years ago when a number
of friends bought these experience packs from a well known high street
retailer. The fact that you could go and buy a pack for just over a £100,
in these cases one for a flying experience and the other for a Go Carting
experience, was very much in vogue with the extreme sports fascination
where every charity event had to include at least one person in the office
absailing or bungee jumping. This of course was the genesis of the idea
which at the time admittedly seemed aimed purely towards the go get it
macho male and offered little for anyone else who fancied gentler pursuits
or indeed anything vaguely aimed at the 51% females of the worlds population.
What Thanksdarling.com and several other similar sites try to do is offer
a broad range of experiences for all genders, ages and backgrounds rather
than specialize in any particular sector. In most retail sectors this would
be a case of spreading yourself too thin, but in the world wide web where
they can interconnect with other business they can deliver the whole gamut
of anything you could ever wish for and if they don't currently offer what
you're looking for you can put money on it that given enough specific requests
they will soon offer it on their books.

Originally when the team at Thanksdarling.com approached us with the
idea of writing an article on the site we simply typed in Manchester on
the search engine and the first option that came up was the Thanksdarling
Make Up Experience. As someone who'd both lost a significant amount of
weight and also seen popstars with and without the make-up we thought it
would be an amazing experience to actually see first hand what the likes
of Robbie Williams and Westlife have to go through each day. The very idea
of actually been given an initial consultation with a personal make over
artist and then seeing that through to the point where 30 photo's were
taken and then with the best photo selected having a personal momento it
was too much for us to resist...but alas it was not to be as the team came
back promising something bigger and better. Naturally the inquisitive nature
got the better of us and we started trying to second guess what else they
could possibly be sending us to in the Manchester area, but in truth
the number of options they have was bewildering and we gave up. A simple
look round the site is mind-blowing at the range of options they have available.
If you consider the Top Sellers list includes the Ferrari 308 Experience,
Military Mayhem, Shadow A Keeper and Relaxing Spa Day as well as more traditional
gifts such as pendants and Archived Newspapers there really is something
for everyone.

What the team actually came back to us with was the Bird Of Prey Experience
in Northwich (also available at 4 other venues across the country) which
again surprised us with yet another arm to the list of experiences they
offer. The initial impression was one of both excitement and abject fear.
Even though my Uncle had bred and flown pigeons for the last 40 years and
I myself had been a keen animal lover for years the very idea of these
gigantic birds flying within a few metres of me was alone terrifying and
that wasn't taking into account the fact they would be eating from my own
hands throughout the day. Strange that for all my rock & roll excesses
I'd seen throughout the years that the very idea of turning into the human
version of the film Kes scared me so much. Myself and photographer Karen
headed off on a cold Thursday morning to the centre in Cheshire and met
with the fellow Thanksdarling customers who'd had nothing but praise for
the site and had used them many times with huge success and tale after
tale of how they couldn't believe times when sites such as this were simply
and idea waiting for fruition.

When you first get to the Cheshire Waterlife Centre which is the Northwich
Centre that hosts the experience you get introduced to each of the Avery
Birds at the centre. Housing the rarest collection of Owls in this environment,
the avery birds are so called because they very rarely fly, which to the
outside may seem against their nature but as the amiable host explains
they like to fly as little as possible and are lazy by nature. The way
they actually tell whether the birds are happy in their environment is
to actually let them breed and if you get a celibate bird it may be a case
of simply changing the partner on offer or housing him in a different cage.
The birds which you get taken through are the McKinder Owl, Pedigree Falcon
(the very type featured in the film Kes and comedy show Bo Selecta if i'm
not mistaken), Harvis Hawks, Serpent Eagle, American Red Tailed Buzzard,
Russian Steps Eagle, White Tailed Seagull, European Eagle Owl, Lugger Falcon
and a Bengal Eagle Owl. Both getting across the facts and also keeping
people interested is a hard job and the host manages to keep you listening
throughout and although I could explain to you how long each of them takes
to mature sexually and various other facts such as this I don't want to
spoil the fun for you when you get there.

The second half of the experience is centred around the actual flying
of the birds. It's something that from prior experience the centre has
found customers don't actually expect. They seem often to take the words
"Bird Of Prey Experience" to actually mean just meeting the birds, learning
about the birds and to actually watch the instructors fly them before your
eyes while you watch from a distance. Being one of two journalists covering
the experience that day naturally it was time to have a bit of fun and
after explaining that the birds fly at you from the rear and to the left
hand side (it's a traditional thing) the instructor promptly grabbed my
hand shortly after and without notice left the morsel of food in my glove.
Within seconds the first bird (of which reaching speeds of over 100 mph
faster than the average car is a ride in the park) is within spitting distance
of my face. Looking face 2 face with these birds so close for the very
first time is shocking and yet after the first time you do it with ease
and relax to actually look at the make up of the feathers and explore these
creatures first hand. With roughly four birds flown several times throughout
the half day experience you get to really learn and understand how the
mindset of these creatures work and watching them fly so gracefully through
the air is as interesting for guest spectators as it is for the actual
person flying the birds themselves.

This experience I'll never forget as long as I live and that ultimately
is what Xmas Presents or for that matter Birthday Presents should be all
about. When I look back at all the years you've spent so much money on
people on presents which in a matter of months will be forgotten about
these types of experiences are certainly things I will be looking at each
year for my nearest and dearest. With prices ranging from as little as
£10 for small gifts through to the 1000s there is more than enough
for anyone and if you're struggling to find something specific then their
are a range of vouchers than can be used on a range of activities to suit
most people. So what are you waiting for - log on now.